Indie folk band Of Monsters and Men released their second studio album titled Beneath the Skin on June 8 in Iceland, and on June 9 around the world. The album topped at #3 on the US Billboard Top 200 chart. Straying away from the upbeat and placid mood of songs such as “Dirty Paws” from their debut album, the thirteen songs in their second album take a more dark and dismal perspective.

In Beneath the Skin, the band continues to manifest its unique sound. The band utilizes different instruments such as melodica, acoustic guitar and accordion to maintain its distinctive folk sound. With the Icelandic band’s recurring background vocals throughout its songs and its frequent poignant crescendos, the album delivers a powerful, rawly sentimental performance.
Commencing the album, “Crystals” is a song that describes the lead singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir’s inevitable need to break the barrier that separates her from someone she cares about. She uses nature imagery to convey this message.

“I know I’ll wither so peel away the bark,” Hilmarsdóttir says.

Through “Crystals”, Hilmarsdóttir expresses that this tree bark keeps her emotionally protected, but also keeps her from growing close to others. She cannot tear down this barrier unless that person sees life in a darker view and realizes the more painful reality.

“Cover your crystal eyes / And feel the tones that tremble down your spine,” she sings.

Hilmarsdóttir wants this person to desist from seeing things in in a faultless, beautiful way through crystal eyes, and instead feel the true nature of his world. “Crystals” aptly sets the mood for the entire album by introducing aspects of Hilmarsdóttir’s personality such as her pessimism and emotional fragility.

The song delivers an intimate and personal performance that is prevalent throughout the album, and is the principal quality of Beneath the Skin. In addition, its underlying, resonant drums and passionate vocals make “Crystals” a catchy and noteworthy song that is the epitome of the band’s musical strengths.

The next two songs, “Human” and “Hunger”, focus primarily on parallels between humans and animals. The heavy usage of symbolism exemplifies the band’s vivid imagination and eloquent poetic expression. Yet, the two songs are innately similar: the musical composition of the song is a bit repetitive, as they both end with a climactic guitar riff followed by the last lines of the song. This redundancy exhibits the album’s occasional lack of musical variety.

The rest of the songs on the album sound innately similar, with the exception of “Organs”, the seventh track of the album. The song has a minimal focus on the instrumentals, but has more on Hilmarsdóttir’s voice, which is more soft and gentle. This ballad is a mournful, haunting piece in which Hilmarsdóttir suffers from a breakup, possibly the same as the one she sings about in “Hunger”, and feels regretful for how the relationship became a shambles.

“I should you eat you up and spit you right out / I should not care but I don’t know how,” she sings. However, the slower pace in “Organs” accentuates the repetitive lyrics, and makes the song rather insipid and one of the less memorable songs of the album.

Beneath the Skin is a deeply poetic album in which Hilmarsdóttir reveals wholeheartedly her emotions, personal relationships and ideas. Similar to the black and white design of the album, the band’s second album is starkly different from its first in its ideas and darker mood, and it certainly deserves a close listen.